Empathy
for Empaths
This week I had a conversation in which I heard about a car accident
which happened decades ago.
The story was told
by a woman who had been a child in the back seat. She was alone with
the driver when the vehicle hit an immovable object.
Thanks to surgeries and casts and braces and the wonders of modern
medical science, they both survived.
I am
fortunate to have no direct experience of an accident like that, yet
as I listened to the details, told with the objectivity of healing
and the passage of time, I found myself connected to the emotions of
the driver and that day.
To see your child in
an intensive care bed, after undergoing life-saving operations, must
be an unspeakably difficult experience. Knowing that these injuries
occurred while you were at the wheel, and in some way responsible, is
unimaginable.
Except it is not. I found myself
in a state much more visceral than imagination, relating to the
driver, overtaken by an agony of love and guilt and fear. I felt huge
pressure under my ribs, which swelled hot and big, and subsided only
when released through the tears as I began to weep.
After writing about empathy last week, and knowing that I am an
empathetic person, the timing was perfect for reminding me that I am
also an empathic person.
Born This Way
It is important to differentiate between empathic and empathetic
abilities.
Empathy is a skill which can be learnt, developed
and practiced;
being an empath, while it can be honed and
attuned, is an innate ability.
The Awakening
People website says that “Empaths are energy sensitive
individuals that are highly effected and influenced by their
environment” which speaks to my experience more than some other
definitions.
As a word, empath
came into usage in the 1950s, occurring in the science fiction of the
time. Google defines empath
as ”a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental
or emotional state of another individual.”
Christel Broederlow, writing on The
Mind Unleashed website, suggests that “being an empath is
when you are affected by other people's energies, and have an innate
ability to intuitively feel and perceive others” which is
certainly my experience, with time and space imposing no limits on
whether I can connect to that energy.
I know!
Broederlow writes of empaths “just knowing” things, and
that is certainly true: as an emotional expression, empaths
know.
Claircognizance is the
intuitive sense which allows for just knowing in the physical,
mental and Spiritual planes. Although the two may not always exist
together, they certainly do in me.
Empaths need
to disconnect from inputs about war and cruelty and sickness and
misery. Avoiding newscasts and turning away from depictions of
torture or injury are simply efforts at self-preservation. It may
sound silly, yet when I unwrapped a gift and discovered a copy of
Malala Yousafzai's book I am Malala I burst into tears. If I
am to remain functional I must limit my exposure to energies that are
so intense within my soul.
Judith
Orloff, MD, psychiatrist, empath, and intuitive healer, is the
author of The Power of Surrender: Let Go and Energize Your
Relationships, Success, and Well-Being.
This Is My Life
Like Christel Broederlow, Dr. Orloff has identified several traits
common to empaths, and they all resonate with me.
~ As children,
empaths have often been labelled (and judged) for being over
emotional, or too sensitive.
~ When a friend is upset or unhappy,
an empath will feel the same way.
~ Crowds are emotionally
draining for an empath, and alone-time is needed to recover
afterwards.
~ An empath cannot be comfortable among noise or
odours, or excessive chit-chat, and will tailor the schedule and
transportation to permit an escape and avoid over-stimulation.
Even though I might leave early, or only 'make an appearance' at an
event, there is in my empathy and my empathic response the ability to
experience much. I can find a deep connexion to people and happenings
with minimal exposure. As with my friend this week, as soon as I
heard the outline of the accident, with a driver I have never met, in
a place I have never been, living an experience I have never shared,
I was overcome by the driver's emotional pain.
My clients know that many tears have been shed while I am delivering
readings, sometimes they have joined in! Empaths help people to
process stuck emotions; to restore the flow of Cosmic energy; and to
become more fully engaged in this adventure of Human Life. Have some
empathy: pass the tissues.
I have
been laughing and crying with clients and supporting them through
change and growth since the 1980s.
For a
consultation or other session, in person or by Skype click
here
Jo Leath has been practising Numerology since the early 1980s.
During her career she has studied synchronicity and various ways of accessing Cosmic Wisdom.
She is a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator with Veriditas: Worldwide Labyrinth Project.
Jo meets clients in person and online, and is sometimes a featured reader at metaphysical stores in various cities.